Taking Control of Windows – Part 2

In Part 1 I explained some of the uses of WinWarden.   Now I want to explain what is the main use – transparency.

You might think that transparency looks really cool, but that’s not what’s best about it.  What is best about transparency is the added functionality it gives you.

You can work on one project, say editing a document and at the same time see if something else you are doing e.g. installing a program has finished by having the document on top and making it semi-transparent so that you can see what is going on behind it.

I often use transparency when I want to see some text and copy from it or modify it somewhere else.  I can simply open a text editor on top of the program , enable transparency and read the information underneath as I work on the new document.

Alternatively you might have a desktop widget which you are watching (e.g. stocks and shares, the weather etc.).  Transparency allows you to see the relevant information while you’re working on something else.

Or you may just love your desktop wallpaper and want to see it while you work.

WinWarden allows you to control the degree of transparency which is important as you may need different levels of transparency for different tasks, or depending whether what’s on top or what’s underneath is more important.

Here’s what 20% transparency looks like:

And here’s 80% transparency:

To make a window transparent, just right click on the WinWarden icon, move the mouse to “transparency” and move to the desired percentage and click (left click).

If you want WinWarden to keep that setting for that window until you override the command, right click on the WinWarden icon again and select “Remember”.

Another useful feature of WinWarden is the “Always on top” feature which keeps a window on top of all others.  I find this useful when I want to take notes say from a website.  I’ll open a Word document, and make it small.  With “Always on top” my little Word window stays put when I go back to the website (or another document) to scroll up and down, click a link or whatever.

As I said I have found this functionality really useful.  

I hope you will to.

Jason

Using Launchy and Google Desktop together

In a previous post I explained the virtues of Launchy.  (Launchy is a free program which lets you launch any program, and even folders or files really easily).

Launchy can be taught what certain abbreviations mean and this learning function is really useful.

Here’s an example.  the first time I wrote in Word, Launchy guessed many different things, among them was Microsoft Wordpad.  There’s nothing wrong with Wordpad; it’s just that I meant “Microsoft WORD”.  So I actually wrote “Microsoft Word” in the search bar which Launchy then recognized.  I selected that entry and Word opened.  I then closed Word, called up Launchy again (by hitting Left ALT + Space – the default hotkeys for Launchy) and wrote “Word".  Launchy now knew that I meant Microsoft Word because I had just used it.  In fact I don’t use other programs beginning with “w” much so just hitting “w” has Launchy guessing “Word” and I just hit enter and it opens up.

In a similar way I taught Launchy that “g.” means Google Video, “ppt” means “Microsoft PowerPoint etc. – you get the picture. 

While Launchy can find individual documents (if you add “.doc”, “.txt” etc. to the extensions which Launch catalogs) it can’t find documents based in words that appear in the body of the document.

But that’s OK because there’s another great free utility which does that really well, as well as it does it on the web:  Google Desktop.  (Once installed, Google Desktop opens when you hit the left control button twice)

Google desktop is great at finding document names and words or phrases within documents.

Once I realized this, I had Launchy ONLY catalog programs (.exe) and program shortcuts (.lnk) and folders (.directory) because Launch, as I explained above is smart and can learn abbreviations I use it only for programs and folders.  I use Google Desktop to find individual files by file name and by words and phrases within files – a wining combo – each – Launchy and Google Desktop doing what it does best.

Jason

P.S. the search window for both Launchy and Google Desktop appear and disappear via the same key combinations.

For Launchy that is Left Alt + the Space bar - hit this combination once and the searhc window appears, hit it agina and it disappears.

For Googe Desktop that is the left "Ctrl" (Control) button - hit this combination once and the searhc window appears, hit it agina and it disappears.

P.S.  If your Launchy closes, which happens sometimes and you start it up again and discover that the directory was wiped out (if you type something and Launchy has no suggestions you know this has happened) just open Launchy and right click just under the Launchy window.  Hit “options” and “catalog” and then select “rescan catalog” and Launchy will rebuild the catalog.  (You may have to teach it again as per the explanation above)

Taking Control of Windows

As I’ve shown repeatedly in this blog, Windows can be improved in many ways.

There's a nice free program called WinWarden.  (Actually there are lots of great free programs at the same website – worth checking out)

Some things WinWarden does can be done without it.  E.g.:

You can change the shape and size of any window in Windows by clicking the middle of the three icons in the top left-hand corner of any window.

 

in particular THIS one:

And dragging the edges of the window to get the desired size.

With WInWarden you can re-size windows quickly to certain useful sizes.

Right-clicking on the WinWarden icon

 

brings up the following menu:

Hovering the mouse over “Cover” brings up another menu:

I find this very useful whenever I need to compare two documents or copy between them.

Select e.g. “Right Half” for one document and “Left Half” for another

(the menu works for the currently active window) and within a couple of clicks you have a divided screen with one document on each of the two halves of the screen.  (If you prefer “Top Half” and “Bottom Half” – same idea).

Now THIS is new … after having chosen “Right Ha;f” (or “Left Half”) right click on the WinWarden system tray menu again and hit “Remember”.  Now, even if you go to something else in the meantime, when you come back to the relevant document(s) the settings will be as before.

Here’s an example of two files locked into the right and left halves of the screen:

There are other functionality enhancements that come with WinWarden but more on that next time.

Jason

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Making the most out of GMail – Part 1

GMail is a great, easy-to-use free webmail client and it works pretty well.

But it can work even better with a few tweaks.  I will be showing you some of the more important ones.

FIRST of all, you need to enable “Labs”.

Go to “settings” in the top right hand corner and enable the “labs” function.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll see an image of a green conical flask on the right of “settings.”

Click on it and “labs” will open up.  The title should read:

“Gmail Labs: our testing ground for experimental features”

Google say that because these features are in Beta they may not work perfectly.

(See ** at the end of the blog for Google’s emergency exit if something goes wrong)

I think however that the simpler features – the ones I have been using - should work fine.  I haven’t had any problems with any of them.

The most useful I have found is “Quick Links” (by Dan P).

Open any email and click on “Add Quick Link” as shown in the picture above. 

A window will then appear showing the actual path for the email – which you will want to change because it looks something like this:

Change the name (in the text box) to something you’ll remember, e.g.:

The link to that email will now appear in the Quick links box on the right hand side:

Whenever you click the link, that specific email, or email stream (it doesn’t take you to a specific email within a stream) that email will open up.

(The quick links appear in chronological NOT alphabetical order)

Whenever you want to delete the link (this doesn't delete the email) just click the “X” to the right of the quick link.

That’s it!

This is probably the most useful lab feature.

Jason

_______________________________

**Google’s emergency advice:

If (when) a Labs feature breaks, and you're having trouble getting into your account, there's an escape hatch -- just go tohttps://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 and Labs will be temporarily disabled.

Keeping your programs up-to-date - the easy way

Trying to keep all your programs up-to-date can seem like an endless task.

The annoyance is amplified by unwanted notifications that your don't have the latest version of some program which is needed to do what you need to do right now, usually when you have no time to mess around downloading or updating programs.

Enter FileHippo.com Update Checker - a program (in Beta although it seems to work fine) which you can have running all the time which sits in your system tray and lets you know when (and how many) updates are available for your programs. I just updated about ten programs to the latest versions. (It also notifies you when new Beta versions are available - you can turn this off if you want).

You can also customize results by right-clicking the system tray icon and selecting (not surprisingly!) "customize results".  This lets you exclude programs from FileHippo's search.  Selections can also be reversed.

Worth downloading I think.

Jason

How to send a free SMS from your PC - USA only!

Once upon a time you could send an email to cell-phone-number@teleflip.com and the message would reach its destination.

But alas that doesn't work anymore.

But there is still a way - albeit slightly more cumbersome - to achieve this result.

By the way if you know a more elegant way to do this please let me know!

All carriers (I think) have a service to receive SMS messages from email. So if you send an email to them all, you will definitely get a few error messages but at least one will reach your desired destination.

There are THREE stages.

1.

Copy this list of all the carriers into a WORD document (or text editor of your choice with the cut and paste function)

Xx@vtext.com, Xx@txt.att.net, Xx@messaging.sprintpcs.com, Xx@tmomail.net, Xx@messaging.nextel.com, Xx@cingularme.com

2.

In the "find and replace" function enter "Xx" as above in the "find" window and the cell phone number you want to reach in the "replace" window.

NOW you have a list of all the carriers with the cell phone number before the "@"

e.g.

Cell.number.you.want@vtext.com, Cell.number.you.want@txt.att.net, Cell.number.you.want@messaging.sprintpcs.com, Cell.number.you.want@tmomail.net, Cell.number.you.want@messaging.nextel.com, Cell.number.you.want@cingularme.com

3.

Paste the list into the "To" line in an email, compose your email (keep it short, its an SMS!) and hit SEND.

This method is fool proof.

Good luck!

Jason

P.S. Google say they will be adding a new feature to Labs which will let you "send SMS text messages right from Gmail."

It was pulled because it wasn't working properly. If it gets rolled out AND I try it and find that it works better than the method I've discussed here, I will update the blog.

P.S. There are companies which claim they can tell you which service provider the number you want to contact uses, but seeing as numbers are no longer tied to carriers - remember you can keep your number when you change carriers - the system can't be perfect. At best it can tell you the ORIGINAL carrier, but that may or may not be the person's CURRENT carrier.

While this list is for the USA only, you can probably make a similar list for any country and then do all the same things.

Google Chrome vs. Firefox

Having taken Google Chrome for a test drive for a few weeks now I think I have a settled opinion (for now).

The bottom line is that I use chrome (especially the Stand-Alone Desktop Apps) quite a lot.  But there are plenty of things that Firefox (still?) does better.  See below for more

Here is my evaluation so far.

1. It's fast.  Without actually timing loading times it seems to open most sites quicker than Firefox 3.0.3 (and of course a lot quicker than Internet Explorer 7

2. It has some neat features

For example:

You can move around the tabs and change their order by dragging them out of the line of tabs and then back in, or simply across the row.

You can save websites or applications from the Gmail suite as stand alone desktop applications which go right to that URL and provide a nice icon on your desktop by which to identify that specific website.

I have found this handy e.g. when I want to go straight to GCal or Google Docs and instead of having to open GMail and navigate to these applications pressing on the icon takes me straight there.

(Clicking the document icon on the top right hand side and selecting "create application shortcuts" will do this)

Also, the sparse design maximizes screen real estate and gives a clean no-nonsense look.  Bycontrast opening Firefox afterwards makes one feel like it's a bit cluttered.

However this advantage is in some ways a disadvantage as a lot of the control which Firefox's fuller dashboard affords is missing from Chrome.

For some reason the way the web app works is that it makes a desktop looking program out of the web app.  This means that there are no navigation controls so if you want to open a new tab you need to remember the keyboard command "Cntrl" + "t" which then opens the chrome. browser in a separate window.  Each time you hit "Cntrl" + "t from the web app window it will open another tab in the other Google Chrome window.  This is all a little strange.  It would be more convenient if the web app window had some controls and if the new tabs opened up in the same window rather than in a different one.

There are some key areas of functionality lacking from the Chrome Browser at this point which will hopefully be addressed soon.

Firstly, whereas you can always open Internet Explorer for those (annoying) websites which only work with IE inside Firefox without opening another program or window, there is no such option for Chrome.  So I find myself having to open Firefox and copy the URL from Chrome when this happens.

The integrated Google Notebook in Firefox is really good and makes it a breeze to open and add new entries, whether URL's or highlighted text with a neat little sidebar to allow navigation between folders.

In Chrome, although the notebook can be placed in the bookmarks bar, (it appears as an icon of a page with the words "Note This" next to it) the navigation is a hassle.

Also, without the functionality of  Firefox's tabs open relative extension, Chrome opens all new tabs at the end.  So although you can drag them around, as I mentioned above, they don't open where you want them.

Also the Save and Exit and Quick Restart buttons which are so useful in Firefox are sorely missed in Chrome.  This is especially true of the former.  I find myself having simply to keep Chrome open when I have opened lots of tabs and don't want to loose the session.

More generally, you can't yet get all the essential buttons I've discussed for Firefox which is a significant drawback.

And that's not to mention all the themes and other goodies like colorful tabs which make Firefox a visually pleasing experience.  Not to mention cool enhancements like CoolIris

If lots of developers jump on the bandwagon and address the issues I mention here then Google Chrome has a bright future.  But as of now for all the reasons I mentioned above it can't be my default browser.

Worry-Free PC (as close as you can get) - Part 2 (cure)

My last post discussed some programs which pro-actively monitor your PC and alert you to any changes which may, if not from a source you recognize and trust, indicate the existence of
malware which I called "before programs".

In this post I want to talk about programs which remove all traces of a program when you want to remove it from your PC (for whatever reason), or "after programs".

Windows has its own has its own uninstaller (see Diagram 1) but this program does not search out ALL files associated with the program being uninstalled and so, in many cases leaves modifications which the program being deleted made to your PC intact and does not restore your PC to its former state.

Diagram 1

Enter two programs which DO remove all traces (sometimes shortcut icons remain but they don't affect your PC much). One costs money - Total Uninstaller. The other - Revo Uninstall is free. Total Uninstall (more on Revo below) works by taking a snapshot of your PC before installing the program. When you uninstall the program it takes a new snapshot and notices any changes the program made and reverses them. This way, removing a program really does remove all traces of that program.

To run Total Uninstall you simply right-click the downloaded program file (usually located on the desktop) and select "Monitor with Total Uninstall" (see Diagram 2). Total Uninstall then takes a snapshot before prompting you to install the program. After installation a new snapshot is taken which notes any changes the program made to the PC.

Diagram 2






Last time I checked, Total Uninstall cost $30. It works well, but there's a program which I think is even better and it's free. It's called Revo Uninstaller. Revo can ALSO reverse ALL changes made by an installed program. I think it's better that Total Uninstaller because unlike Total Uninstaller, you don't need to do anything BEFORE you want to remove the program. Simply install any software however you would normally do that. REVO does all its work when you want to UNinstall the program. As you can see from Diagram 3 below there are four uninstall options or "modes". the "Built-in" mode does exactly what the default Windows uninstaller does. But there are THREE MORE uninstall levels beyond that. I have personally only ever used the "Advanced" mode which has a few, easy to follow stages. (See below)

Diagram 3

Revo first analyzes your PC (like Total Uninstall does, but BEFORE you installed the program) in four stages as per Diagram 4 below.







Diagram 4

Usually Revo finds debris from the program scattered in various places throughout your hard drive. Below (Diagram 5) is an image of what Revo found when I uninstalled a (perfectly respectable) program called Handbreak. All files and folders which need to be deleted (remember this is ADVANCED mode) are highlighted in bold. YOU need to check the relevant boxes manually - make sure only to check the bolded boxes, otherwise files you need may be deleted. It's pretty straightforward. Just make sure you check before hitting the 'delete" button. The effort is worth it - this is how you make sure all junk gets removed along with the program.

Diagram 5
Once you check the relevant boxes and Revo uninstall those files in most cases (not all) Revo will find some more files and folders which need to be deleted. (See Diagram 7) Again the boxes - this time ALL of the boxes - need to be checked and again double check before hitting delete. (Check that you don't see the names of some other program there) As you can see below all the folders say "Handbreak" so this should be pretty straightforward.

Diagram 6







You can download Revo for free here.

Sandboxie, plus WinPatrol plus Revo should make life for a PC user pretty secure. (No guarantees of course, but my PC's have been doing fine).

Revo is compatible with: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

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Worry-Free PC (as close as you can get) - Part 1 (prevention) (2000, XP, Vista)

One of my recent posts discussed the virtues of running your browser sandboxed.

I mentioned in that post that if you tell it to, a sandbox will let you download files and programs onto your PC and if you want to install software or edit and print a file you will have to let things out of the sandbox and into your PC where you are of course vulnerable to attack.

So how do you protect yourself from threats OUTSIDE the sandbox?

This post (and the next one) will discuss two different kinds of programs which might be called "before" and "after".

The "before" programs monitor your hard drive for suspicious looking activities (e.g. logging keystrokes, changes to certain files on your hard drive) and alter you to the requested changes asking you to approve or abort.

One free program which does this is ThreatFire AntiVirus (previously called "Cyberhawk"). I used to use this program but I found the warnings uninformative - which means that you are told something is wrong and can't really work out if the reported alarm is a threat or not. As a result I didn't allow some changes which needed to be made to run legitimate programs).

However, I found another free application called WinPatrol which does this job and gives you enough information to tell whether the changes that a program wants to make come from a trusted or malicious source. Win Patrol. (They have a "Plus" version which apparently tells you more, but I've been doing fine with the free version.)

Here (Diagram 1) is a screenshot of WinPatrol's control panel. (It includes options like scheduling tasks, control of which programs run at start up etc.)

Diagram 1


When WinPatrol spots something suspicious it alerts you.
Here (Diagram 2) is the alert I got when Windows Live Mesh tried to add itself to the progams running at start-up. (As it happens this change is acceptable, but if you received such a message from a program which you didn't want to allow to make this change you would simply hit the "No" button instead of the "Yes" button).

(Diagram 2)













The bonus of programs like Win Patrol (as opposed to re-active programs - see below for examples) is that they are pro-active - catching things before they happen - rather than re-active - catching problematic changes after they have happened. So WinPatrol etc. give protection in real time.

I also run Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware (two "re-active" programs) just to make sure that nothing got through inadvertently.
(Lavasofts paid versions apparently offer real-time protection, but we're looking for FREE software)

In my next post I will discuss the free programs which remove all traces of any installed programs.

(By the way the "barking dog" sound which is set as a default can be neutralized on the control panel)

WinPatrol can run on: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista


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Keyboard shortcuts you'll actually use

First of all, let's state the obvious. Doing things with the keyboard takes less mental energy than using the mouse because you don't need to look for any icons and it's also much quicker.

There are lots of keyboards shortcuts but most of us don't have a chance of remembering them all.

So ... while you are sure to find MORE keyboard shortcuts elsewhere in the web e.g. here or here, the point of this post is to share the few REALLY ESSENTIAL ONES.

Here goes ...
- works with either right or left versions of the relevant keys

The "Windows" key (see below)






Windows + "D" minimizes all windows and shows the desktop
(useful e.g. if you want to see a widget on the desktop for a second or find a shortcut to a file or a program there - see here for how to avoid the need)
Windows + "D" also takes you from the desktop back to the program you were in just before
Windows + "L" locks your computer (if you have screen lock set up)


**The FOLLOWING keyboard shortcuts work in Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
(Thanks to "Dan A." for pointing this out)

The "control" or "Ctrl" key (see below)





Control + "A" selects all the text in the window or program
(e.g. pressing Ctrl + "A" in Word will highlight everything in the document)
Control + "C" copies whatever you have just selected
Control + "V" pastes everything you copied.
*(I use Ctrl + A then + C then + V very often - it’s a winning combination)
Control + "F" brings up a search box in whatever program you're in ("F" and in "find")

STYLE functions:
- repeating the strokes reverses the action

Control + "B" makes any selected text .... BOLD
Control + "U" makes any selected text .... Underlined
Control + "I" makes any selected text .... Italic


The "Alt" key (see below)





Alt + "Tab" cycles through all open windows
My next post will discuss a good program which replaces the default Windows XP Alt Tab function.
For the nimble of finger:
Alt + Shift + Tab cycles through the windows BACKWARDS (useful if you've got lots of windows open and you just went past the one you want.)
Alt + Shift is the default combination for switching languages IF you have more than one language in use


In Microsoft "Word" ...

Shift + the "F3" key will change any highlighted text to;
all lower case, all upper case, title case (First letter of sentence upper case, rest lower case) in sequence if you keep pressing tat combination.
Control + Alt + "F" creates a new footnote

See here for more shortcuts.

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Navigating your open files and programs

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In my last post I highlighted some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts.

This time I want to mention an enhancement for WINDOWS XP which makes the Alt + Tab function much more useful.

First the basics. When you hit Alt + Tab on windows a window comes up which shows a small icon for each window/program open and as muc of the filename as will fit into the box below all the icons as in Diagram 1 just below (Vista is different - if you have Vista see here)

Diagram 1








This is definitely a useful device. Sometimes however you may have a number of files with similar names and the description won't tell you enough to remember which is which and the icons only show the type of application - e.g. all the Word files simply show an icon for a Word file.

There are at least two ways to get more information out of the thumbnails.

1. Install a program which works like Exposé on the Mac

I bought this program which shows you in miniature form all the open windows with a label in front showing the file name - See Diagram 2

Diagram 2



















It looks great and it does the job but ...
1. It takes up a lot of system resources, slowing your PC down
2. It costs $10 - that might not be a lot, but free is always better!

So, I found a program which gives the visual thumbnail so you can actually see what the program/file looks like, enough to remember which document or program is which.

It uses fewer system resources, doesn't freeze up the PC
AND ... it's free.

TaskSwitchXP simply replaces the standard Alt + Tab functionality showing you what you need to see when you need it but not slowing things down when you don't need it.

Here is what it looks like. (See Diagram 3) (The size and shape of the preview and file list panels can be modified according to personal preferences)

Diagram 3















It is highly configurable as the image below (Diagram 4) indicates but can be used as is. (I found the default size of the panes too small for my liking so I changed the size).

Diagram 4




















The program can be downloaded here

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SANDBOXIE or how to be sure you're surfing the web safely (For: 2000, XP, NOT Vista)

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What’s a “sandbox?” A sandbox is a program which creates an area on your hard drive and opens programs inside that area which are hermetically sealed within it unless you the user let them out. SANDBOXIE is a really good FREE sandbox program.

You can run ANY program sandboxed (see Diagram “1”) below

Diagram 1

But if you run your WEB BROWSER sandboxed then anything which your browser downloads, or any changes made to your browser settings will remain within the sandbox.

If you want to download a program or a file to your computer you need to tell Sandboxie.

The following dialog box will open and you’ll need to choose the “recover” option. (See diagram “2” below)

Diagram 2

You can control where the file gets downloaded to or just allow the default which downloads the file to your desktop.

Uploads are no problem i.e. you don’t need to open a program un-sandboxed to upload.

File opened with Sandboxie have a pound (hash) sign on either side of the program name so it’s easy to see instantly whether you’re running sandboxed or not. (See diagram “3” below)

Diagram 3

If you open a program with Sandboxie you won’t be able to print because the program is in the sandbox and so unconnected to the rest of your computer. You’ll need to open it un-sandboxed to print. If you want to print a page from your browser you can open your browser normally (i.e.not with Sandboxie) and copy the URL, go to that page and print.

I probably spend 90% of my time online within Sandboxie and only open my browser un-sandboxed to print or to change browser settings.

(By the way this means that if you want to change settings in your web browser you’ll need to open normally, without the sandbox. Changes you make will then be seen when the browser is opened sandboxed as well).

When Sandboxie is running you will see this icon

in your system tray if you have a program open or if a program has been used and the contents of the sandbox have not been deleted and this one

if the contents of the sandbox are empty.

Although this is not necessary to remain secure, you can empty the sandbox globally or the contents of a specific sandbox at anytime by right clicking on the sandbox icon in the system tray and choosing “Delete contents” (See diagram “4”) below

Diagram 4

You will then be given the option either to close the dialog box or to remove the contents of the selected sandbox. (See diagram “5” below)

Diagram 5

For convenience I re-named the “default browser” icon “Firefox” and I just use that to launch the browser sandboxed (if for whatever reason I’m not using Launchy – see my post here )

This program is free but after a month you’ll get a dialog box (see below) when you open the program which will go away if you make a donation. But the free version has full functionality.

You can download Sandboxie free program here.

Comments, Questions, Suggestions …

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